Thursday, June 6, 2013

See attached, and happy reading and by comparison, pay particular attention to the citizenship area where our draft constitution seems to divorce this matter when it comes to dual nationality because the thinking seems to want to be able to allow different regimes to poker with the subject on regular basis, depending on where the wind of the day blows, hence rely on Act of Parliament of the Day to enact a Law such as The Citizenship Act, 1995...

In my view, our neighbors in Kenya, have covered this quite adequately - see these sections under Kenyan Katiba

CHAPTER THREE—CITIZENSHIP

12—Entitlements of citizens.

13—Retention and acquisition of citizenship.

14—Citizenship by birth.

15—Citizenship by registration.

16—Dual citizenship.

17—Revocation of citizenship.

18—Legislation on citizenship.

and accordingly theirs accords the restrictions as they see appropriate under citizenship and leadership for dual citizenship, within the KATIBA itself.

I think we have some very useful lessons to learn from this and surely, we need to act collectively to make such voice re-emerge!

Allowing this to be outside the constitution, while we maintain DON'T ASK DON'T TELL policy and yet have a few privileged to keep multiple citizenship and showing the face depending on the wind of the day, yet hide behind the notion that this dual nationality part needs so-called "majority support", is a mockery at its highest form!

Our constitution can and should readily accommodate what we want for Tanzania NOT for the next 50 Years as our leaders have been suggesting, but for the rest of the survival of humanity and civilization as we know it on this land we call Tanzania with her people as a nation thereof.

In the case of the Katiba of the US, though written more than 200 years ago, they are still working on it TODAY and trying to achieve the dream they envisaged and they make progress! Don't go for the mantra that we can't compare ourselves with the US or any other nation! We can certainly compare ourselves with ANY HUMAN BEING when we talk about freedom, growth/development and self-reliance.

The Law Reform Commission of Tanzania did some good work on the subject of Dual Nationality...

On citizenship the "RASIMU ya KATIBA" shies away from mentioning dual nationality and outlines the following :

SURA YA TANO

URAIA KATIKA JAMHURI YA MUUNGANO

54. Uraia wa Jamhuri ya Muungano

55. Uraia wa kuzaliwa

56. Uraia wa kuandikishwa

I give credit to the three sections above as amongst other rights, they do cover adequately for children of Tanzania born outside the country while their parents are/were holding Tanzanian citizenship.

Recommendation to the Tume ya KATIBA:

In my view, we need a section which stipulates on Dual Nationality and stating along these lines:

57. A citizen by birth does not lose citizenship by acquiring the citizenship of another country.

Dual nationality caveat may include: as long as they were born after 1961. The reasoning here is to ensure that this young nation embraces, facilitates and uses its human resources effectively from the people it nurtured, educated and invested on them as an emerging nation, regardless where these people are now! The good majority of people born post 1961 are very much still heavily emotionally connected to their motherland and some of them are best placed strategically to benefit Tanzania as a young nation. Majority were even pushed to be away mainly for economic reasons - very few or perhaps none on political reasons!

My question is: How can the BUNGE do its work effectively if it has no legal basis to scrutinize what has been given as advice by the cabinet to the President of the day ? Are we maintaining the Powerful Presidency King in this 21st century with Tanzania having a good number of educated population ? It is too risky !

My suggestion is better to make it stringent such that the BUNGE cannot go down this line without thorough investigation and where the evidence is overwhelmingly convincing, then surely it needs to have the legal basis to scrutinize and the same applies to the Courts. This is the balance of POWER that must be addressed by this new constitution.

My comments: [This is a serious loop hole ! If all external relation issues are a matter for union, then why allowing this to this extent - note that words used carefully... My suggestion will be any matters that crosses the border of the URT should be UNION matters and into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, period]

My comments: [This is good, but it needs to states explicitly that the Union Government may reject such propositions and that will be final. As much as it may support, it may reject as it sees fit and within good reasons]

[Notice the words "kwa makubaliano na masharti maalum" - this implies it is VERY possible to have a lame duck UNION where there are no makubaliano on matters that may arise with ambiguity or somehow forgotten on the union matters or anything. The Union will have no much power or say over its two subscribers subscribers. I see the notion of delegating powers but in the context of 3 presidents, this is a loophole for more appetite to break the union]

Are we now stating that we will have wabunge kutetea mambo ya wanawake and wengine mambo ya wanaume ? I had thought the country has passed that level and we surely need to base matters on merit and not sex whether it is a position for male or female . This is violation of the principles of equality and positive affirmation gone MAD ! With this mindset, one day we may end up with Female Cabinet on one side and Male on another ! We need to step out of this and emphasize meritocracy and surely this needs not be in the contitution in the sense of sexes!

Dissappointingly, I notice the words UJAMAA completely dropped, but I remain hopeful with more use of the word UMOJA, and USHIRIKIANO.

I would suggest kwenye TUNU za Taifa we add KUJITEGEMEA and also MAENDELEO. This is VERY important. See below:

Naona hii draft katiba ndani kuna makundi na inakuwa kama kuyasimika sasa instead of reversing the negative traits being avoided! Kuna mtu/watu, raia, mtoto/watoto, wanawake, wazee, walemavu, umma. Hawa sio BINADAMU kweli ?? Naona tumesahau albino! This trend is OVERKILL and I would suggest that all the bill of rights are addressed as BINADAMU as surely these do apply to all as human beings, and where relevant laws can apply to particular situations as it should!

My suggestion the mother of all oaths should be to protect and defend the United Republic of Tanzania, period. This oath needs to propagate all the way to the cell level of any administration of any structure taken!

Karibu kwenye ulingo wa kutafakari kuhusu tunapotoka,tulipo,tuendako na namna ambavyo tutafika huko tuendako/Welcome to a platform for reflecting on where we are coming from, where we are, where we are going and how we will get there